Marriage of Artist Athlete

I am not a photographer. We are all visual recorders. I studied photography pre digital age. I’ve dated a professional photographer. I know lots of real photographers. I am not one. But I sure am addicted to taking pix with my iphone and posting on instagram. I’ve tried to scale back the visual recording (I believe it’s become an all too easy replacement of making things with my hands – this I don’t like). I use snapchat mostly these days so that the photos and video go away unless I save them to my phone. I told you that so I can tell you this. Besides being an artist, I am an athlete. When I’m running lots of miles on trails, it puts my mind at rest and I have barely a desire to really do anything else. My desire to create drops off. I’m sure there’s a science to it – dopamine and endorphins makin’ me feel all better, comfortable, no worries, just eat and sleep.

When I go for long periods of not creating I get irritable despite the dopamine drip. The solution wasn’t hard really when I began carrying an iphone while running. I decided to also bring along miniature toys. While running, I stop and photograph miniatures in the wilderness (pix to come in future blog post). Marriage of the #ArtistAthlete. This lead me to deliberately taking my 99 cent Barbies out for their very own photoshoot. Hazel and Loy. They’re always together. Blue hair and fluorescent orange skirt. I’m not sure which one is Hazel. Last year, three cousins arrived in LA and wanted in on the action so I dressed them in vintage crochet wear for a rooftop photoshoot. Just as I don’t like waiting for paint to dry (I break out the blow dryer if needed), I also don’t spend a lot of time setting the scene or prepping the dolls. My dolls are from the 99 cent store. I especially like how the cousins’ heads don’t match their bodies. There are lots of photographers out there shooting super cool detailed scenes with dolls. If you don’t know Mark Hogancamp, you should. He creates the most detailed scenes of a 1:6 scale World War II town he named Marwencol. Sometimes I record moving images of the dolls. Hazel & Loy are planning this year’s holiday card as I type. My union of artist and athlete also gave birth to a storytelling night in the park for a year and making of racks that hold race medals. Keeping the creative muscle in motion is just as important as training for a race. Did you know there is an artist athlete school? Academy of Art University in San Francisco!

If you’re an artist and an athlete, I’d like to know how you are able to do both.